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UGANDA / CHILD HEALTH
STORY: UGANDA / CHILD HEALTH
TRT: 3.19
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS; NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / LUGANDA / NATS
DATELINE: 02–06 SEPTEMBER 2013, BUKUMANSIMBI, UGANDA
1. Close up, baby Brian Butenga Health Centre
2. Wide shot, caretaker holding baby Brian at Butenga Health Centre
3. Wide shot, caretaker, Brian’s mother and Brian at Butenga Health Centre
4. Wide shot, community meeting
5. Wide shot, children swinging
6. Close up, boy
7. Tilt up, independence statue
8. Med shot, boy
9. Close up, M-Trac dashboard
10. Wide shot, technician in laboratory
11. Close up, slide on microscope
12. Wide shot, health worker checking pregnant mother
13. Wide high, angle of health worker checking pregnant mother
14. Close up, health worker checking list of diseases
15. Close up, health worker sending M-Trac SMS
16. SOUND UP (English) Sister Pauline Nalutaaya, Nursing Officer:
“Its sending.”
17. Close up, health worker receiving M-Trac notification
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Wassua Timothy Bukenia, Senion Clinical Officer, Butenga Health Centre:
“We are quite happy, overwhelmed by this. We are seeing now our communities believing in our services. Actually now we are demanding for more space. What initially we couldn’t think of we are now demanding more space, more equipment, more drugs. We are no longer experiencing wastage of drugs.”
19. Wide shot, community dialogue
20. Close up, Village Health Team member speaking at community dialogue
21. Close up, community dialogue feedback form
22. Close up, M-Trac
23. Med shot, of M-Trac
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Davis Musingizi, Health Systems Specialist UNICEF Uganda:
“Previously if a facility had a drug stock out, they would have to wait three/four months for the next drug supply. Right now the district can look at his MTrac dashboard and identify which facilities have sufficient and which ones have a stock out and will be able to do redistribution in his own district.”
25. Wide shot, Village Health team worker with pregnant mother
26. Close up, information booklet
27. Med shot, Village Health team worker with pregnant mother
28. SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Aisha Nanyinjo, 30 years old:
“Esther taught me about proper feeding, to go to antenatal care and to sleep under a mosquito net.”
29. Wide shot, UNICEF Innovation Centre
30. Close up, prototype screen
31. Close up, projector
32. Wide shot, Innovation hub workers look at prototype
33. Close up, health vide
34. SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Hartmut Androsch, technical coordinator, Technology for Development (T4D) UNICEF Uganda:
“I mean they were totally amazed. It was the first time they had seen something like that. First of all, many have not seen something like a healthcare video and then we even had it in their own local language, Karamoja language.”
35. Wide shot, kids playing with digital drum
36. Med shot, kids playing with digital drum
37. Close up, digital drum screen
38. Close up, baby
39. Wide shot, treasure life centre to children playing soccer
40. Close up, boy missing soccer ball
41. Wide shot, soccer
42. SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Reed, Mission Director, USAID Uganda:
“It’s a lot of the basic nuts and bolts frankly. It’s sanitation, water, electricity, its staff, it’s access. So I think it is going to be a shared commitment and we really need the government of Uganda to really step up. They have an excellent plan and we need to be working together to implement that plan.”
43. Wide shot, crowds walking
44. Wide shot, two women with babies walking
45. Close up, Equator
46. Med shot, boys walking
47. Wide shot, boys walking past equator
One of Uganda’s newest citizens Baby Brian, days old, but already graduated out of the most fragile moments in a child’s life, thanks to being born here.
Using a mix of the age-old African bush telegraph and innovative ways of using modern technology, Uganda has cut the number of child deaths by two thirds in less than a generation.
Through a rapid SMS system known as M-trac, the health staff gather facts from the patients in need, test and treat them, and manage the medicine supply chain in real time.
SOUND UP (English) Sister Pauline Nalutaaya, Nursing Officer:
“Its sending.”
The system tracks diseases and drug stocks, makes sick children better and delights the medical staff here:
SOUNDBITE (English) Wassua Timothy Bukenia, Senion Clinical Officer, Butenga Health Centre:
“We are quite happy, overwhelmed by this. We are seeing now our communities believing in our services. Actually now we are demanding for more space. what initially we couldn’t think of we are now demanding more space, more equipment, more drugs. We are no longer experiencing wastage of drugs.”
Villagers themselves, through a program of community dialogue, have helped feed the demand for better health services.
And the M-trac system has cut time and costs
SOUNDBITE (English) Davis Musingizi, Health Systems Specialist UNICEF, Uganda:
“Previously if a facility had a drug stock out, they would have to wait three/four months for the next drug supply. Right now the district can look at his MTrac dashboard and identify which facilities have sufficient and which ones have a stock out and will be able to do redistribution in his own district.”
Volunteers from Village Health Teams, like this woman, are on the frontline against the big killers of children here like malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. They diagnose, advise, refer and sometimes treat diseases.
SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Aisha Nanyinjo, 30 years old:
“Esther taught me about proper feeding, to go to antenatal care and to sleep under a mosquito net.”
They use M-trac as a digital bridge between a pregnant mother, and a faraway clinic, making sure she gets lifesaving information and medication on time.
It’s all starting to give Uganda a reputation of being something a laboratory of change for children. This prototype is being developed to beam vibrant health messages out to remote rural areas, like Karamoja in the far west. The results so far have been popular:
SOUND UP (English) Hartmut Androsch, technical coordinator, Technology for Development (T4D) UNICEF Uganda:
“I mean they were totally amazed. It was the first time they had seen something like that. First of all, many have not seen something like a healthcare video and then we even had it in their own local language, Karamoja language.”
Some of the tools made here are tested out by children on the ground at this centre supported by UNICEF.
This digital drum which streams lifesaving information in a fun, child-friendly way is helping close the digital divide.
Technology can be a game changer for development here, but the balance with basics is seen as key.
SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Reed, Mission Director, USAID Uganda:
“It s a lot of the basic nuts and bolts frankly. It’s sanitation, water, electricity, its staff, its access. So I think it is going to be a shared commitment and we really need the government of Uganda to really step up. They have an excellent plan and we need to be working together to implement that plan.”
With rapid urbanization and the third highest fertility rates in the world, this East African country that crosses two hemispheres, faces a future where children will count for more.
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